A Promise Redeemed
by Tubbie
Summary: A Conversation. Bobby and Alex have promises to keep.
1. Chapter 1

TITLE: A Promise Redeemed

Author: Tubbie

RATING: T or what used to be PG

BETAed by Linda (ever vigilant and ready beta)

SYNOPSIS: Conversation.

COMMENTS: Bobby and Alex have promises to keep.

DISCLAIMER: Everything relating to Criminal Intent is owned by Dick Wolf and NBC productions. Yadda, Yadda, Yadda.

He stood quietly. He stood still as stone. He was lost in introspection.

His shoes' wet sheen blended with the dew of the short grass he stood upon. Hands shoved deep into his overcoat's pockets. Collar upturned to block the cold wind from biting his ears.

The morning sun rose slowly behind him. Its warm rays crawled up his legs and poured down upon his back. He didn't notice. The cold and the emptiness were all that he felt. It seemed it was the only bit of the real world, the here and the now, which he could realize at this place.

'I would say I'm sorry about being late. But, I don't believe time matters as much from your view as it does from mine. I am sorry that it has been another year and still there is no justice for you. I will never stop looking. You are not forgotten.' Another hour went past as his mind burned. Yet he only was aware of the empty coldness.

She almost missed him standing there. It was like all the stillness of this abode had captured and entombed him. He seemed rooted to one spot. Except for the stillness of his body, she had seen him like this before. So deep in thought, his mind could be focused on a task for hours, excluding all actions occurring outside his mind. Thankfully that intense kind of brainstorming was rare. It drained him and she would usually feel tapped out as well. Sympathy pains. She realized she had been observing him and was lost in her own thoughts for over forty minutes. Time for her to go, time for him to leave as well.

She walked towards him. If he looked, he would see her drawing near. She stood along side him, to his right and gazed at the marker he was staring at. She knew even as his eyes were now fixed upon this slab, he was internally too busy to see that her shadow now fell across the headstone. She read the inscription and appreciated the detail the stone cutter had put into the carving of the lamb that accompany the inscribed words.

"She was 10, and you must have been about 13." Alex watched her warm words swirl off into the air and disappear.

"She never came home from school that day. It was... it was a day like today when she was found."

Her words had instantly brought him back to the outside world. For longer than he seemed to be able to remember he would keyed in on Alex's voice to bring him back to the here and now.

"You knew her?" 'No wonder he's so deep in thought, this is more personal than I believed it to be.'

He tilted his head back, looking straight up into the sky. These movements made him realize how sore and tired he was. He dropped his head down and turned to face her.

"It didn't take long for the family to fall apart. The dad blamed the mother, drinking, suicide attempts and it all crumbled. Their son was 15. He couldn't deal with any of it. He ran away from home. For weeks I swear I would see them both at school. A brief image walking by in the hallway or a face in the busy lunchroom." He glances down at his shoes. "And sometimes they would just be in my dreams." Bobby looks back up at Alex. "The police didn't have much to go on and with the family torn apart," he shrugged "the case went cold. It's still unsolved."

"That was long ago Bobby, Why do you still come here?"

"To keep a promise. To remember someone special."

Bobby reached into his coat and pulled out a white carnation. He knelt down and set the flower across the marker.

"This, I'm sure you have guessed by now, is my partner Alex. She will want to get me out of the weather and go have some coffee." Bobby smiles as he stands back up. 'God, I can't recall smiling in this place ever.' "I have to go now." He turns his attention back to the living.

"Why are you here today Alex?" Bobby looks around a deserted graveyard.

"To remember someone special." Alex extends a hand to him.

Bobby looks confused at the gesture even as his hand leaves its warm pocket to grasp her hand.

"I've meet your friend" She began walking. "Come. I have someone I need you to meet."

Alex led Bobby through the quite and stillness. It was as if sound didn't want to be there. His thoughts were ringing loud against the silence. 'Why was she out here? I've never seen Alex here before; I'm over a month late for my visit. Today's date is the… Of course, today she would be at the cemetery, I didn't think it was this one.'

They had stopped moving. Alex released his hand.

He knew what he would find written there, yet he still had to read it.

_'Beloved Son and Husband killed in the line of duty '_

His reading was broken by her voice.

"Yup, that's my partner. He's the big guy I've told you about."

He watched as she picked up a paper bag left at this spot earlier.

Pulling out a bottle of Irish whiskey, she handed it over to Bobby, knowing he would want to examine it. He took it and was grateful to have something to concentrate on. 'The last thing I want to do is to bother her here. This is awkward. I feel like I've crashed a wedding.'

"Yes, I think he is uncomfortable being here too."

Bobby continued to stare at the bottle; he wasn't reading it. He was realizing that Alex was having a conversation with her dead husband.

"It seems that my partner was holding out on me." She rummaged around in the bag the bottle came out of. "It appears we have a cold case we both should be working on."

"Eames, it's not even an official case, I've been working off the clock on it. I can't ask you to take on a burden that isn't yours."

"On or off the clock I'm there for you. My maternity leave was a burden that wasn't yours, but you took it on anyway. Bobby, are we partners? Friends? Really good friends? Do you trust me with your life?"

Bobby was stunned to be asked. "God, Alex you're the backbone of my life. I'd be lost with out your support. I trust you absolutely in every respect. You know I'm there for you too."

"Then we need to share. You made a promise and I would like to share in the work of trying to solve that case. I want to help you keep that promise."

"Okay, help needed and accepted. Thank you."

"Now help me keep a promise."

Alex produced three shot glasses. Bobby poured the first glass which was sat on the marker of the deceased police officer. The next two glasses were filled. He wasn't sure; maybe a toast of some kind was next. Alex was talking again, and it wasn't to him.

"Yes, I think he's a very good man too. I enjoy his company and feel very safe around him. We have always had a complimentary working relationship. I think we will be just fine together." She started to laugh to a reply Bobby couldn't hear. "Yes, I'm sure he'll keep me."

'… _He'll keep me; we will be just fine together_…' Bobby ran that around in his head_. 'We'll be__fine_? We've been fine the last five years, I think_. Keep me._ I've never wanted anyone else as a partner.'

"Bobby, every year I come here and share a drink." Alex looks at the etched stone. "Just us two." She looked him in the eye. "Until today. Being cops we always knew every new day could also be our last day. We had made a promise that who ever survived would do this ceremony for the other until the third glass was filled. I'm ready to move on. Are you ready to make that possible, so that this promise can be kept and completed?" Alex held a glass out for Bobby to take.

The pieces were all snapping together in Bobby's head.

"Eames, Alex, are you propositioning me here, in a graveyard?"

Alex burst out laughing. Bobby realized how that sounded and broke up as well.

"That didn't come out quite right." Bobby rubbed his chin with his free hand. "Are you proposing a dynamic change in our personal relationship?"

Alex mimicked his movement. "I'm verbalizing an observation of a dynamic that has been headed this way for sometime now." She dropped her hand down to her cocked hip. "We can read each other with out talking. I guess by saying the words it somehow affirms the need for 'you' and 'me' to become 'us'."

Bobby took the glass from her. "Then I am honored to fulfill this promise."

Drinks held high, Alex toasted. "To the badge of loyalty of friends past and present."

They both touched their glasses to the third glass.

As the liquor passes Bobby's lips, he never took his eyes off her. With closed eyes she downed the drink, not too fast, but steadily. Relief overcame her features. This surely must have been an Irish layman's baptism of fire and soul. He finished, and once she looked to him he asked, "May I?"

She nodded.

He poured himself another, and raised his drink to the one who was not there. "I promise to cherish and protect, honor and serve her as long as she will have me."

He downed his drink much the same as Alex had downed hers. He finally could feel the sun upon his cheek and hear the distant songs of birds. The here and now had never felt so good, so right so perfect. One man's promise realized was another man's redemption.

Alex nodded her head toward the way out. "Come on; let's get you out of this weather. We'll go have some Irish coffee at my place."


	2. Chapter 2

TITLE: A Promise Redeemed

CHAPTER 2

Author: Tubbie at T (used to be PG)

BETAed by Linda (ever vigilant and ready beta)

SYNOPSIS: Conversation.

COMMENTS: Bobby and Alex have promises to keep.

DISCLAIMER: Everything relating to Criminal Intent is owned by Dick Wolf and NBC productions. Yadda, Yadda, Yadda.

Bobby returned the bottle and glasses to their sack. It was time to let the past be the past.

As they walked across the lawn, Bobby reached over her shoulders and pulled her close.

"I can only seem to make it here once a year." Alex sounded happy and sad.

"I know. It's hard to acknowledge yesterday when today is so demanding."

"Well today looks like it is going be beautiful." Alex noted how clear the sky is becoming. "How did you get here Bobby?"

"Lewis dropped me off. I never know how long I'll be when I come out here."

"Lucky for you I drove." They were at the entrance and she pointed out the car.

"Alex, Why me? Why choose me?" Bobby asked with concern and a definite need for a deep answer.

"You've got good taste in clothes." Alex wanted him to relax and not start a deep analysis of this new change in their partnership.

He stopped and gave her a look to relate he was serious.

"You could so beat up my ex-boyfriends." She replied with a come-on-lighten-up smile.

He continued his non-verbal plead to his question. She could tell he wouldn't let this slide. Internally she sighed, thinking _deep analysis fodder coming up._

"OK." She grasped both his hands and looked him straight in the eyes. "I am being selfish. You're not just smart, but intelligent, funny, sensitive and a dozen other things that make you desirable to me. But mainly, and here is the selfish part, you can put up with my quirks and idiosyncrasies."

Bobby cocked his head to the left, and slightly squinted at her.

"Oh, like you have the 'odd behavior' department all to yourself? I'm not joking about this Bobby." She tugged his hands so he would continue moving toward the car. "You tolerate my behavior. Really, it's that simple. Rummage though that index card file about me in your head, you will know it's true."

Bobby did just that as he resumed walking, then riding, and finally sitting on Alex's couch.

"So, maybe it's more like a file cabinet, than an index card, of information you've gotten stored away about me in here." Alex lightly touched the top of his head as she passed him going toward the kitchen.

Her apartment came into focus as soon as her words connected with his mind. He watched as she returned to set a fresh cup of coffee in front of him.

Sheepishly he began "Um, how long have I been…"

"…been at my apartment?" She finished for him. "Long enough for me to believe that if you have that much to dissect about my behavior. " She sat next to him with her mug of coffee, "You will be bolting out the door any minute. Or have at least a weeks worth of questions to ask."

"Leave? No, I don't want to… I-I wasn't thinking about you."

She stopped mid sip and wonder what he had been thinking about.

Bobby read her confused look. "I wasn't thinking about you. I was thinking about _how_ I think about you."

"And how do you think about me?"

"I" Bobby paused trying to collect his thoughts. His knee grazed the table as he peered down into his coffee mug.

"It's different. The way I think about various things. When we get a case and I need to figure out the perp. It's as if I'm standing looking at a quiet lake. Then it all changes, I watch the ripples from a rock that has just broken the surface. I don't know with who or what I am dealing. I have to reverse engineer the, how, what, when and why of that action. Then you and I decipher that occurrence in order to put the picture together and get the answers."

Bobby looked to Alex; she gave a nod to let him know she was following. "When I think about my family, uh friends, most people I know, it's like a slow running stream. It is steady predictable and seems never changing. There are subtle things here and there, details that change and need to be checked, but I already have the answers I need to deal with the people I know."

Alex nodded again and figured she must be in this last category.

"At first you kind of flowed though that last group." Bobby rubbed his hands together. "But, it's different with you." He put his hands around is mug on the table to feel the warmth radiating from the smooth ceramic sides. "It became different. It's like a clear deep pond in the woods. The scenery is beautiful, it's very relaxing, a calm sense to it. I can spend as much time there as I need. Although I think I know all that there is to know about this place, every time I return, I learn something new and different. I know the surface, but I can't bring myself to find how deep the still waters are."

"So, "Alex set her cup down. "When you think about me, you don't really _think_ about me?"

"Part of what I am trying to say is, I have learned more about me than you, from thinking about you." Bobby was remembering how tired he was at the cemetery and the need to relax seemed greater now. "Does this make any sense?"

"Yeah, I think it will make more sense after you grab a nap." She rose and offered her hand; he accepted and she guided him to the bedroom. "Go ahead, kick off your shoes, strip down, you need to get some sleep." She turned for the doorway. "I'll be back; I'm off to get another blanket for you."


End file.
